Improvement in heels for boots and shoes



v L. n. BL AKE & A. s. LIBBY.

Heels-for Boots and Shoes.

No. 145,389. Patented Dec.9,1 .873.

Wzznesss. jn few/iars,

AM. PHOTO *LITHUGHAPH/C C0. M Y. (OHM/V55 P110655} UNITED STATES,

PATENT OFFICE.

LYMAN R. BLAKE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, AND ASA S. LlBBY, OF LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN HEELS FOR BOOTS AND SHOES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 145,389, dated December 9, 1873; application filed November 26, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, LYMAN R. BLAKE, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, and ASA S. LIBBY, of Lawrence,

in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Heels for Boots and Shoes 5 and we do hereby 'declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and In our invention we use a thick leather band to encompass a solid block of wood, the wood being properly shaped, the leather strip being molded into shape with its ends butted and united at the front or breast of the heel, and the block being then driven into the band.

Our invention consists, primarily, in bending and beating down over thetop of the block a flange or lip formedof the upper part of the band, such lip forming the principal element in the connection of the heel ,to the sole, the nails being driven through the sole and into and through this'lip. The invention also consists in interposing between the top of the block of wood and the lip a metal plate, by contact with which the points of the nails, driven to unite the soleand heel, are turned and clinched under the lip. To unite the butted ends of the edge-band we cut a chan nel or gash near each end of the strip, in the inner side thereof, each channel extending toward the adjacent edge as it sinks into the leather, and a metal clasp with a hook at each end, having its two hooks extending into the two gashes, with the bar of the hooks inside of the band, such clasp firmly uniting the parts without exposure of the fastening, and being kept in place by the block driven into the band.

The metal clinching-plate and the metal clasp constitute parts of the invention.

The drawing represents a heel embodying the invention.

Figure 1 shows the heel in plan. Fig. 2 is a bottom view of it. Fig. 3 is a front view. Fig, 4 is a section on the line as m. Fig. 5 shows the clasp.

0. denotes theblock of wood, cut or turned to the proper shape to receive the band b. The band is made from a strip of leather, preferably sole leather, and is preferably pressed or molded into shape in a suitable mold, and by the pressure of a corresponding die. The end parts 0 d of the strip form the breast of the heel, and being butted, as seen at c, Fig. 3, they are united by the metal clasp f, said clasp being formed with the two hooks or hooking-edges g h, and the inner surface of the band with the two slits, gashes, or channels i k, (which may be made with an ordinary McKay channeling-machine,) and the ends of the band being joined by slipping the clasp-hooks into the channels. The band being thus formed, and the parts thus united, the block a is driven into the band, and so that its tread-face is flush with the bottom edge of the band. The band is made considerably wider than the block, and is beaten down to form the uniting lip or flange Z, which overlaps the top of the heel-block at and near the edge of the heel and when the sole is laid upon the heel, the sole and heel are readily and firmly united by driving the nails through the sole and lip l, and into the block a, or, preferably, against a metal plate, m, interposed between the block and lip.

The heel may be united to the upper and inner sole, as well as to the outer sole, by placing it in position and then driving the uniting-nails through from the inside of the shoe, the nail-points passing through the inner sole, upper, outer sole, and lip.

The band may be filled with composition or other material than wood; but we prefer the wood.

We claim- 1. The boot or shoe heel, made of a block, a, encompassed by a band, I), which band has the lip or flange l, substantially as shown and described.

2. The blockencompassing leather band, having its ends united by the metal clasp 'f, whose hooks, g h,-enter the channels 1' is, substantially as shown and described.

3. In combination with the block a and band 12, the metal plate m interposed between the block a and lip Z, substantially as shown and described.

stantiallyas shown and described;

LYMAN R. BLAKE. ASA S. LIBBY.

Witnesses:

FRANCIS GOULD, M. W. FROTHINGHAM. 

